This is a great video highlighting this family’s experience of transracial adoption.

[HT: Fields of Grace]

The Scott family from Michigan recently brought home their son from Ethiopia. It is an incredible joy to be a small part of what God is doing in families like the Scotts through ABBA Fund. Here is their story:

When I share our adoption story, I tell people that Jenna and I started this process when we first got married almost ten years ago. At some point during that first year, she asked me if adoption would ever be something that I’d consider. I’m not sure exactly what I said, but I must have given the wrong answer; she never brought it up again. Adoption has always been on Jenna’s heart yet not on mine unless we couldn’t have kids. Thankfully, God worked on my heart, and all of that changed.

In 2006, I traveled to Tanzania to help a group of villages on Bumbire Island to tap into a fresh water spring. For the first time I saw the face of poverty and the extremes of life in third-world Africa. I also realized for the first time how wealthy we were, and that with that wealth comes a huge responsibility.

When I came home, my heart had softened. God put adoption on my radar so to speak. Jenna and I began really looking at our life and our financial priorities. We simplified and prepared our home for whatever God had planned. In 2008, God moved in our hearts, and we officially began our adoption journey.

This past July, we brought home Taye from Ethiopia. Ten years ago, I never would have even considered that he would be our fourth child. God knew long ago that we needed Taye in our lives as much as Taye needed us in his. While the process wasn’t always easy, every moment was worth while when we saw his face for the first time. He brings a joy to our family beyond words.

The transition has gone surprisingly well. Our first three children have given Taye all the rights of the youngest brother including everything from fights over toys to hugs over falls. We’ve been amazed at how well our family has bonded with each other. Of course, each day is an adventure, but we wouldn’t miss for the world.

Jenna heard about Abba Fund from friends of ours. We applied for a loan early in our adoption journey as we didn’t know how we were going to pay for the adoption. Thankfully, we were able to finance most of this adoption with cash. However, toward the end the adoption process began to speed up. After passing our court hearing, we had only three weeks to purchase tickets and gather money together for the last of our financial obligations for Taye.

At just the right time, we got a great call from Julie. She told us funds were available. The money was just the right amount we needed. Throughout the remainder of the process, everyone at Abba Fund was so encouraging! We knew they were praying for us each step of our trip to Ethiopia. We will be forever grateful for Abba Fund and their heart for children all over the world.

We are very excited to join Dr. Russell Moore, David Platt, Jedd Medifind, Justin Taylor, Andrew Peterson (leading worship) and others for the Adopting for Life conference this February 26-27 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Check out the website here for more details.

Dr. Russell Moore writes about the aim of the confence here:

You may be wondering whether this will be a conference about the doctrine of adoption or “real” adoption. Well, one of the things that we’ll be discussing is the fact that you can’t talk about the one without talking about the other. Also, it is not as though we master one aspect and then move to the other—from the vertical to the horizontal or the other way around. That’s not the picture God has embedded in his creation work.

So we’ve invited a number of great speakers to “Adopting for Life” who will seek to equip us to create a culture of adoption in our families and churches. We’ll be answering questions such as, “What does adoption have to do with the Great Commission?”, “How can I pay for adoption?”, and “How can we start an adoption ministry in my church?”—along with so many others.

I would love to see you here in Louisville for the “Adopting for Life” conference, as we think together about how God might be leading us to be on mission with Christ for the sake of the orphans of the world.

For the Kingdom of Christ,

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Today we celebrated your 5th birthday! Every day you amaze me with your passion for life and desire to serve others. I’m so thankful God lets me be your daddy!

I love you. I am proud of you, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for you in the years to come!

Daddy

One of the great needs and opportunities in our country today is the care of over a half a million foster children. These kids have been removed from their homes when their families are in crisis and can’t take care of them (these families are in great help as well). These kids are in need of temporary families and in most States and counties there are not enough families to care for them.

To put things into perspective, one website states if things don’t change and we don’t find more families for these children then:

By the year 2020:

• 22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth birthday^
• More than 10.5 million children will spend some time in foster care^^
• More than 300,000 children will age out of our foster care system, some in poor health and many unprepared for success in higher education, technical college or the workforce^^^
• 75,000 former foster youth, who aged out of the system, will experience homelessness^^^^

Here are the latest statistics from the Federal AFCARS data (2006)

Who are the children waiting in the U.S. foster care system?

• 510,000 children in foster care nationally
• 32% of foster children are between the ages of 0 and 5
• 28% of foster children are between the ages of 6 and 12
• 40% of foster children are between the ages of 13 and 21
• Average # of birthdays a child spends in foster care: 2 birthdays (28 months)
• Average # of placements children experience: 3
• 17% (88,475) of children live in group care or institutional settings

What are United States’ foster children waiting for?

• 248,054 (49%) are waiting to be reunified with their birth families
• 127,000 (25%) are waiting to be adopted
• Average time foster care children have been waiting to be adopted: 39.4 months

Where did the United States’ children go after leaving foster care in 2006?

• 287,691 children exited foster care
• 152,152 (53%) were returned to their parents
• 49,741 (17%) were adopted
• 45,761 (16%) left to live with relatives (some through guardianships)
• 26,181 (9%) “aged out” or left the system at age of 18 or older
• 12,086 (4%) left for other reasons (ran away, transferred, died)
• 2,349 (1%) left for unknown reasons

Find statistics for your state here.

Child Welfare Statistics

The Child Welfare League of America has created the National Data Analysis System (NDAS), which is the most comprehensive collection of child welfare data available. The data contained in the NDAS illustrate the wide variation in the states’ collection of information regarding child welfare issues. View the data

Transitioning from Care

Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people “age out” of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Several foster care alumni studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, the future of these young adults is tragic:

• Earned a high school diploma         54%
• Obtained a Bachelor’s degree or higher     2%
• Became a parent                 84%
• Were unemployed                 51%
• Had no health insurance             30%
• Had been homeless                 25%
• Were receiving public assistance         30%

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?

My son,
Never stop loving and holding your sister like you are in this photo!
Watching you care for her and love her like this causes me to worship.
Your holding her hand. So tender.
Your holding her close. Protecting her.
Your smile and your eyes show how proud you are of your little sister and how much you enjoy playing with her.
You love her with a sweet love.
There is a freedom and joy in this photo that is simply beautiful.
Her eyes and her smile show how much she loves you and adores you. She gets so excited when you play with her and when you dance with her.
I pray this childlike freedom will never fade but only grow as you two grow older.
I am bursting with joy seeing this love and dreaming of what God has in store for you!
I couldn’t be prouder.
I couldn’t be more thankful to God!
I love you!
Daddy

Christ Chapel Bible Church, one of our church partners, is filling shoeboxes this Christmas for Operation Christmas Child. They put together this powerful video. The girls in the video have been adopted by a family in the church. At one time they were orphans in Russia – receiving shoeboxes – and now they get to give them.

Throughout the years we have helped a number of military families adopt. These men and women are amazing to me. I can’t imagine being away from my family on tour and all the stress related to being in war and then in the midst of that adopting a child. Some of these families have adopted special needs children. They are true heroes – multiplied!

For those in the military there are some adoption benefits. For instance:

Military service members who adopt a child under 18 years of age may be reimbursed qualified adoption expenses up to $2000 per adoptive child (up to a total of $5000 if more than one child is adopted) per calendar year.

For more information the National Military Family Association has compiled some resources in one place.

Getting Started

Reimbursement

Leave

Health Care

While at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta this past weekend we came across this picture and quote. I agree with King and would like to have the audacity myself to believe that “every child orphaned in the USA, Canada, and the world would have a family to call their own,” and “every unreached people group would have a gospel-proclaiming, disciple-making church established among them” (Matt 24:14)

What do you have the audacity to believe…?